Does the Music Industry Need a Title IX?

This morning a Coachella 2015 poster with only the names of females performers & bands with woman leads made the rounds in the social media world. Initial reactions of disbelief were standard, as well as armchair analyses defending the male-dominated lineup. While it’s not a whole reflection of all the women involved in the festival, claiming there are simply more male-fronted bands is inaccurate at best. Women in STEM, the gaming industry or even in starring roles in Hollywood indicates many cultural and policy shortcomings in the US.

The music industry needs it’s own version of Title IX. This past October, The Fader magazine did a piece where they talked to 13 female producers, asking why they think there are so few female producers and engineers, 3 months later we get this Coachella lineup, with over 150 bands, a mere 26 (less than 17%) are led by or have female singers. Thinking women want to be singers or performers at half the rate men do, is ludicrous and thinking: “it’s a male dominated industry, that’s the way it is. therefore, it’s ok.” is absolute bullshit. No one should be accepting of nepotistic practices that keep half of America at arms length from achieving their greatest potential.

Festivals are America’s stages. There needs to be more gender & race representation across the nation’s stages, inside our studios and at the tops of music companies. Solutions to get more women in STEM, may also lead to getting more women in the music industry. Also, funding for the arts in general will help guide & influence our future in many ways.

Here are 50 women-led acts that are not performing at Coachella 2015:

Miles Terracina

Miles Terracina: -chief lyricist and beat programmer of the electronic
music group Mixed Use Media. -Founded the blog & character persona
PunkSoda. -Creator of Sobre Sound -writes about music -likes barbacoa